Week 11

Week 10 did not require any readings – because our class played the audio copies of interviews we had with various senior journalists.

The reading for week 11 is ch 14: ‘Journalism in the global village’ by Rhonda Breit. The chapter discusses the idea that journalism is increasingly being involved in the global village – global issues, global stories, global audiences.

New technologies are changing the way journalists get and report news. These technologies are not only affecting the way news is reported but also some local laws are becoming irrelevant in a world of mass information to mass audiences. The legal system is suffering under this media liberalisation and globalisation. “While freedom of speech may flourish in this environment, other rights such as personal privacy are suffering.” (Breit, p.213).

The global village has been enabled by increased developments in technologies. With this global audience – global corporations and TNCs have grown in power – the ten largest media corporations are: “Time Warner, Disney, Bertelsmann, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Sony, TCI, Universal (Seagram), NBC (GE), and Polygram” (Breit, p.214). There are also other large corporations that specialise in targeting niche markets – such as the Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). “Concentration of media ownership into the hands of a few TNCs is threatening the integrity of journalism. At the same time it threatens the legal systems that regulate the media and balance basic human rights.”(Breit, p.217).

Another large factor that impacts journalistic practice today is commercialisation. “..commercial considerations are tainting the news agenda in the global media, as they have done in the national media..” (Breit, p.216).

With globalisation come the aforementioned pressures on journalists (commercialisation, competition, mass audiences, largely US ownership and ideologies etc) which will consciously or unconsciously effect their productions. In such an environment, “It is vital that journalists rethink their functions in society.” (Breit, p.219).

Breit suggests that globalisation poses two major threats; it threatens the two most powerful ‘watchdogs’ – the judiciary and journalism.

The Judiciary is threatened, because “when publishing material globally, the media must comply with the publication laws of each jurisdiction in which they publish. For the journalist who writes the stories, this is an onerous task.” (Breit, p.222). The expectation that global media will abide by local laws set out in the judiciary system is asking a lot. The power of TNCs and the technologies allowing global reach of journalistic works are the two factors that Breit says are “undermining domestic laws” (p.222).

Journalism is threatened because of all of the pressures that globalisation puts on a journalist to shape their work a differently than if they were primarily serving their role as the fourth estate.

Breit suggests the only way to combat the negative effects that globalisation has on journalistic productions and on the judiciary system managing journalistic productions, is to have global cooperation (p.225). “Journalists must consent to a transparent system of accountability, supplemented by internationalised local laws that acknowledge the changing role of the global journalist.” (p.229).

I don’t really think it will be possible to come up with a global set of rules or laws for journalistic accountability. I think it would be too difficult to assimilate different countries’ views on censorship and defamation etc. These sorts of rules incorporate value systems that are often unique to one country. This global village that we live in poses many issues for journalists to face – some we can attempt to battle alone – others are best left to the diplomats.


References:

Briet R, 2001, ‘Journalism in the global village’, Tapsall S and Varley C, Journalism: Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 213 – 231.